Homeland nominee Chertoff confirmed

Vote unanimous as senators call for strong hand

February 16, 2005|By Los Angeles Times.

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday unanimously confirmed Michael Chertoff as head of the Department of Homeland Security, with lawmakers expressing hope that he would forge the troubled agency into a more effective tool in the war on terrorism.

The bipartisan support for President Bush's choice for the post reflected a widespread belief that Chertoff--a former prosecutor with a record of taking on mobsters and corporate wrongdoers--will bring a strong hand to the government's newest Cabinet-level department.

"I think he is well-qualified," said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.).

It was Levin, however, who held up the confirmation for a week while demanding that the administration hand over a secret FBI memo on interrogations of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, written while Chertoff was head of the Justice Department's criminal division. Republicans said the memo was irrelevant.

Democrats did not question Chertoff's qualifications for the job of transforming the sprawling Homeland Security Department, composed of 22 agencies, into a single, well-functioning unit. Since its creation in 2003, the department has been plagued by morale problems and has seen its turf eaten away by more powerful, entrenched bureaucracies, such as the Pentagon and the FBI.

"Judge Chertoff assured me he would fight within the administration for resources that have been missing from Homeland Security," said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).